Lunch, the Catalan way

It has been a few days but here I am again! Yesterday we arrived at camping La Monte in Torre de la Horadada, after spending 2 days in Benijofar, near Alicante. The camping is full of big, expensive campers and caravans. If they’d have a contest for smallest and oldest caravan/camper, we would definitely win :-). I also think we are the youngest visitors here haha.....
Before I tell you about the last couple of days, let me go back to Saturday, to camping Cal Paradis. The reason we were there, is because it was close to the home of a friend of Corné, a colleague who had become a friend. You see, Corné worked in Barcelona for almost a year, till February 1st this year....per that date he quit his job. During that year his team had grown fond of Corné and hearing that he’d be close to Barcelona again, his friend JM was keen to meet him and invited Corné and part of the team over for lunch last Saturday. The lunch was at the restaurant at Cal Paradis. When Corné and I walked over to the restaurant the son and daughter of the owners were busy smoking something, or was it burning? We stopped and asked what they were doing. They were preparing our lunch.... calçots. We watched the ritual for a short while and then continued walking to the restaurant. There five people from Corné’s team had arrived with their partners and some with their kids. Hugs and kisses followed....They were clearly happy to see each other again! After some chatting and a first drink, we were invited over to our table in the restaurant. To my surprise there was a sort of bib on our plates, plus a pair of plastic gloves. What was all that for? I didn’t have a clue and since my Spanish is very, very limited I couldn’t ask Corné’s Spanish collegues either. Then terracotta rooftiles were put on our tables with the blackened calçots in it, plus a small plate with a sauce next to everybody’s plate. Right...and now what? JM came to the rescue and explained using gestures and his Spanglish that I had to tie on the bib and put on the plastic gloves. Then take a calçot by the top of the green part and keep it up in the air, pull the blackened part down with your fingers, dip the soft white part in the sauce, hold the calçot up in the air again and eat it, like you eat a herring. 
Wow, this was fun to do and it tasted great as well! We ate heaps of calçots. I haven’t explained yet what they are, but they look like a mix of a spring onion and leek. The flavour is still a bit of an onion, but very soft. Very, very nice.....

The calçots were just a starter...haha, it could have been the main dish, given the quantity we ate. The main dish was just perfect too, with artichoke, beans, potato and some mixed vegetables. All fresh from the organic garden of a family member. 
For dessert tiramisu, homebaked applepie and crema Catalana, the Catalan version of crème brûlée were served. Yammie!!!

After this we were full, as you can imagine. Our tastebuds had just had a feast of flavours and new tastes and I felt grateful to have the chance to experience these typical Catalan dishes, in this beautiful setting, with friendly Spanish people around me....