Rosa Azul, Cadaques

September 1st, 2009. 1 PM.

Attempting to learn our lesson from the previous day, when the massive lunch had provoked several hours of nap and a relative lack of interest in dinner, we swore to keep things light before The Best Restaurant In the World. As usual, there were some minor problems with the ordering. Guilty as charged, Your Honor.

But you almost don't need to eat, do you, when this is the view over your table and out to sea? I had eyed this place every time we drove or walked by, and it seemed like just the casual, light thing to do of an afternoon even if the weather was a bit overcast.

A bit of stucco, some tables facing the bay, cheap tapas...Rosa Azul has a good location and trades on it. The inside is cave-like and populated with British working holiday-makers. But we would have sat outside unless threatened with bodily harm.

Just normal food here, done normally. This is Spanish omelette, or tortilla as it's known in my country. Actually, it would be nice to know how tortilla became tortilla chips, which are related in almost no way I can think of - totally different ingredients (excepting maybe water) and preparation method. If anything, the color of the sliced and cooked products are similar. That's pretty thin. Another pretty thin thing was the taste of the tomato bread here; the Spanish do seem to delight in using cheap bread and cheap tomatoes and pretending that putting them together makes them better overall.

Canned tuna on tomato bread. I love canned tuna.

Manchego cheese. Really ticking boxes here, aren't we? After a couple days in Spain these were the first tortilla, tuna and Manchego we had eaten. These did not enrich our lives in any perceptible way. 

This ham sort of did though - it was definitely a different experience then you may be used to. The slices were thick, as was the flavor - dark and a bit harsh, with a side-order of chewiness. I guess the value of this lunch was in seeing what more normal people eat, or at least people on holidays going to cheap restaurants (though if you were on a budget you probably wouldn't want to go here. Or anywhere else in Cadaques. You'd go to the supermarket and buy this stuff, then eat just across the street, actually on the beach.).

Did I mention the view? That was the real value of this lunch. While we ate, the weather cleared up a bit, making it perfect for parking in front of a beer, looking at the water and passerby. This would be an everyday thing if you summered in Cadaques, and such a consommation is devoutly to be wished. It might take a few days to slump into the swing of things, downshifting to the proper speed, but then you'd be reclined by the water, beer in hand (I'd pardon you for choosing sangria), grunting occasionally in pale imitation of conversation.

Did I mention the view? The other value in this lunch was in putting us in just the right frame of mind to sit for a few minutes on the balcony back at the hotel, admiring the yachts and the distant lighthouse, before falling asleep to the distant sound of waves on the pebbled beach. And then of course getting up and dressed for dinner.